Threicio Aquilone sonant: rapiamus, amici, Tu vina Torquato move consule pressa meo. Cetera mitte loqui: deus haec fortasse benignâ Reducet in sedem vice. Nunc et Achaemenio Perfundi nardo juvat et fide Cylleneâ Levare diris pectora sollicitudinibus, Nobilis ut grandi cecinit Centaurus alumno: 'Invicte, mortalis deâ nate puer Thetide, 'Te manet Assaraci tellus, quam frigida parvi 'Findunt Scamandri flumina lubricus et Simoïs, 'Unde tibi reditum certo subtemine Parcae 6 Rupere, nec mater domum caerula te revehet. 'Illic omne malum vino cantuque levato, 'Deformis aegrimoniae dulcibus alloquiis.' CARM. 13.-3. amice, Bentl. conj.-13. proni (inst. of parvi), Bentl. conj.— 15. curto, Bentl. conj. 6. tu, expressively in imperative and adhortative sentences (comp. above C. 1, 9, 16; 1, 11, 1; 1, 14, 15; and below Ep. 1, 2, 63)-meo, because he was born in the consulship of L. Manlius Torquatus, B. c. 65 (comp. C. 3, 21, 1,) see the Excurs. to C. 1, 20. 7. cetera, i. e. public affairs-mitte= omitte, poetic. with the infin. loqui (comp. Terent. And. 5, 3, 2: Mitte male loqui). 8. reducet in sedem berignâ vice = grata vicissitudine reddet statum certum ac firmum rebus nunc labantibus -Achaemenio, see above note to C. 3, 1, 44. 5 10 15 18: fide Teïa), see Excurs. III. to C. 1, 1. 11. nobilis Centaurus, i. e. the famous Centaur Chiron, by whom Achilles was educated; grandi alumno, i. e. Achilli. 12. construe invicte, puer nate mortalis dea Thetide. 13. te manet, i. e. is fated to theefrigida flumina Scamandri, one of the sources of Scamandros was famous for its coldness (comp. Hom. II. 22. 151: Η δ' ἑτέρη θέρει προρέει, ἐικυῖα χαλάζῃ, Η χιόνι ψυχρῃ, ἢ ἐξ ὕδατος κρυσ τάλλῳ). 14. lubricus et, et put after the objective as an enclytic, see above note to C. 1, 2, 9. 15. certo immutabili, 'inevitable.' 16. caerula, epithet of the sea-goddess Thetis. 17 and 18. construe: illic levato omne malum vino cantuque, dulcibus alloquiis deformis aegrimoniae-deformis, poetic. = quae deformes reddit, 'disfiguring.' CARMEN XVI. AD POPULUM ROMANUM. This splendid epode is generally supposed to be one of the poet's earliest compositions, and was probably suggested by the renewal of the civil war, A. U. c. 713, after the battle of Philippi, when the victorious legions of Augustus and Antony turned their arms against each other throughout Italy, and under the very walls of Rome. Some commentators are of opinion that this epode refers to the outbreak of the last war between Octavianus and the combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra, A. U. C 722; but such an hypothesis must be rejected as untenable, for this among other reasons, that the intimate and cordial friendship which then subsisted between Horace and Augustus would have restrained the former from recommending to his countrymen a universal emigration from Italy, as the only expedient which could rescue them from liability to civil commotion and bloodshed. After a glowing picture of the earlier triumphs of Rome over all foreign enemies, the poet proceeds in a strain of impassioned eloquence to foretell the certainty of that ruin which the Romans were then bringing upon the commonwealth by their ever-recurring and bloody civil wars. Despairing of peace, and convinced of the impending destruction of the capital and the empire, he entreats the wiser and more virtuous members of the community to accompany him to the Hesperides, those fortunate islands of the Western Sea, Madeira, or the Canaries, to which the Roman general, Sertorius, when defeated by Pompey in Spain, once determined to retire. He encourages the Romans to adopt this desperate resolution by the example of the Phocæans of Ionia, who, when they were reduced to the last extremity in a blockade to which their city had been subjected, B. c. 534, by Harpagus, a general of Cyrus the Elder, with one accord deserted their fatherland in a body, and bound themselves by a solemn oath never to return, until a bar of iron, which they had flung into the sea, should rise to the surface, and be seen floating on the waves. ALTERA jam teritur bellis civilibus aetas, Quam neque finitimi valuerunt perdere Marsi Aemula nec virtus Capuae, nec Spartacus acer Carm. 16.-1. altera aetas, i. e. 'a second age, generation (since the troubles in the time of Sylla). 2. and Rome herself falls by her own strength,' comp. the same idea in Propert. 3, 13, 60: Frangitur ipsa suis Roma superba bonis, and in Liv. Praef. ut jam magnitudine laboret suâ. 5 3. Marsi, i. e. the Marsic or Social war in B. C. 91-88. 4. Porsěna, with one n and e short, as also several times in Silius (but Virg. A. 8, 646: Nec non Tarquinium ejectum Porsenna jubebat, &c.) 6. novis rebus, ablat. temporis = in novis rebus; alluding to their vacillating behaviour at the commencement Nec fera caeruleâ domuit Germania pube 10 Quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini - Forte quid expediat communiter aut melior pars 15 Nulla sit hac potior sententia, Phocaeorum Agros atque Lares patrios habitandaque fana 20 Ire, pedes quocumque ferent, quocumque per undas Notus vocabit aut protervus Africus. Sic placet? an melius quis habet suadere?-Secundâ Ratem occupare quid moramur alite? Sed juremus in haec: Simul imis saxa renarint 25 Vadis levata, ne redire sit nefas; CARM. 16.-8. parentibusve, Bentl. conj.-14. videri, some Codd.-21. ferunt, some Codd. of the Catilinarian conspiracy (comp. Sall. Catil. 41: diu in incerto habuere, quidnam consilii caperent). 7. caerulea, blue-eyed.' 8. abominatus, in passive sense, 'abominated,'' accursed' by our ancestors (parentibus, act. dat. a majoribus nostris). 9. perdemus, sc. eam (Romam, quam neque, &c. from line 3 sq.) 10. rursus, i. e. as before Romulus. 13. quaeque carent, i. e. which are now buried and guarded from winds and sun-Quirini, here poetic. for 'Romans' in general. 14. videre, sc. this scattering of the bones. 15. sq. construe: (si) forte communiter (i. e. vos universi) aut melior pars (vestrum) quaeritis quid expediat carere (= quid efficiat ut careamus, liberemur ab illis) malis laboribus (malis quibus laborat res pub Neu conversa domum pigeat dare lintea, quando In mare seu celsus procurrerit Apenninus, Mirus amor, juvet ut tigres subsidere cervis, Credula nec ravos timeant armenta leones, + 30 Haec, et quae poterunt reditus abscindere dulces, 35 Eamus omnis exsecrata civitas, Aut pars indocili melior grege; mollis et exspes Vos, quibus est virtus, muliebrem tollite luctum, 40 Nos manet Oceanus circumvagus: arva, beata Reddit ubi Cererem tellus inarata quotannis 45 Germinat et numquam fallentis termes olivae 50 29. proruperit, some Codd.-33. flavos, some Codd.-41. circumvagus arva beata; Petamus arva, Bentl. poetic. tum demum liceat nobis redire Romam, quum saxa ab imo maris fundo rursus emerserint. 28. Matina cacumina, i. e. the mountain Matinus in Apulia (comp. above C. 1, 28, 3; 4, 2, 27). 32. mil-ü-o, three syllables, instead of milvo, by diaeresis (comp. below, Ep. 1, 16, 51: miluus for milvus, and above in Epod. 13, 2: siluae). 35. haec, accus. plur. neutr., &c., belonging to exsecrata (comp. v. 18). 38. perprimat cubilia, contemptuously for: desideat domi. 39. tollite pellite (comp. below Ep. 1, 12, 3: tolle querelas). 40. Etrusca praeter et, poetic. for: et praeter Etrusca (see Notes to C. 3, 3, 11 and C. 1, 2, 9). 41 and 42. note the emphatically repeated arva, arva - divites insulas, added, as a more specific. notion, to arva, by the figure Epexegesis (comp. above C. 3, 4, 4: fidibus citharâque). 43. Cererem, poetic. frumentum ; comp. above C. 3, 24, 13: Immetata quibus (sc. Getis) jugera liberas fruges et Cererem ferunt. 48. lévis, &c., i. e. maxima cum celeritate defluit de montibus. 50. tenta distenta, i. e. turgida lacte (comp. Virg. Ecl. 4, 21). Nec vespertinus circumgemit ursus ovile, Nulla nocent pecori contagia, nullius astri Jupiter illa piae secrevit litora genti, Ut inquinavit aere tempus aureum, 51. ovili, Cod. Turic.-65. Aerea dehinc, some Codd. 51. vespertinus, adj. inst. of the adv. 'at evening-time' (comp. above C. 1, 2, 45: serus in coelum redeas; and ib. 1, 7, 17: sapiens finire memento). 52. intumescit alta (= alte) humus, 'the rising ground swells up.' 56. temperante utrumque, i. e. tempering, moderating both kinds of excess (of rain and drought). 59. cornua, sc. antennarum, the points of the yards, poetic. for ships in gene 55 60 65 ral, 'hither the Sidonian mariners never turned their sail-yards' (their ships for landing). 61. nullius, poetic. with short i. 64. ut, &c., when he alloyed the golden age with brass.' 65. ferro duravit = ex ferro procudit, ferrea reddidit-quorum, genit. object., belonging to secunda fuga, a prosperous escape from which-vate me, i. e. according to my advice. |